WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans on Tuesday cancelled a vote planned for this week on the Graham-Cassidy bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) after it became clear they didn't have enough votes to pass the measure.
"Due to events under our control and not under our control, we don't have the votes," said Sen. Bill Cassidy, MD (R-La.), one of the bill's co-sponsors, at a press conference in the Capitol. "We made the decision since we don't have the votes, we'll postpone that vote."
But the Republicans are not giving up on the legislation, said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), another co-sponsor of the bill. "It took 18 months to pass Obamacare; it's going to take a while to repeal it. We had 50 votes for the substance, not 50 votes for process." Graham was referring to critics who said the bill was being rushed through without enough hearings or time to deliberate and add amendments.
"With a new process, with more hearings, with regular order ... We're going to get 50 votes," he concluded.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) disagreed.
"The reason the bill failed is that the overwhelming majority of Americans didn't want it," he said. "They saw that it would take healthcare away ... Our [Republican] colleagues had no choice, in the face of opposition from one end of the land to another, but to withdraw their bill."
If they try again to pass it, "it will meet the same fate," he added. People want to improve the healthcare system, with better healthcare, more people covered, and lower premiums. They don't want to retract the healthcare system and leave people out there to fend for themselves."
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions (HELP) Committee, said she was ready to continue working with HELP Committee chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) on bipartisan legislation to fix the ACA. "Sen. Alexander and I been making great progress toward stabilizing the market and reducing premiums," she said. But because the Senate's attention was turned instead to the Graham-Cassidy bill, "the 2 weeks since our last hearing [on a bipartisan effort] has been wasted -- 2 weeks of refusing to do the right thing, and 2 weeks of inaction."
Congress is now up against a deadline because health insurers on the ACA's insurance exchanges are finalizing their rates for 2018, she said. "The damage is done already; insurance rates are likely to rise because of the Trump administration and Republican leaders, but we can still get the result we deserve."